202 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIV. 



sliown, are not behindhand in relating the mar- 

 vellous productions of the valley of the Nile. Plu- 

 tarch* and Clemens t are satisfied with the enig- 

 matical intention of these compound animals ; the 

 former saying that Sphinxes were " placed before 

 the temples as types of the enigmatical nature of 

 their theology;" the latter supposing them to sig- 

 nify that " all things which treat of the Deity must 

 be mysterious and obscure." 



The Egyptian sculptures also represent cows 

 with liuman heads t ; lions with the heads of snakes 

 and hawks, or with wings ; winged crocodiles with 

 hawks' heads ; and other monsters]; some of which 

 occur on monuments of the early period of the 

 17th dynasty.'§ One of these, with the winged 

 body of a quadruped and the head of a hawk, was 

 called Sefr ; and one named Sak united a bird, a 

 quadruped, and a vegetable production in its own 

 person. It had the head of a hawk, the body of a 

 lion, and a tail terminating in a full-blown lotus ; 

 and, being a female, threatened to produce other 

 monsters as horrid as itself, with a facility unknown 

 to ordinary hybrids. 



BIRDS. 



Vultures. 



The large vultnre of Egypt was said || to have 

 been emblematic of Neith, or Minerva ; and the 



* Pint, (le Is. s. 9. f (]lem. Strom, v. p. 150. 



1 Vide supr/). Vol. I. (2tl Series) p.:jf)4. 



I Vide Vol. III. p.'2.'i. 



II Honipollu (i. 1 i.) says, "of Minerva, or of .hino, or heaven 

 (Urania), a 3'ear, a niotlier/'cl-c. 



